#JusticeForRohith: Students embark on bus yatra

Bengakuru, Feb 13: As a part of their protest demanding justice for Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, several students of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) embarked on a bus yatra (bus journey) on Thursday (February 11).

The journey, which saw several student activists boarding a bus plastered with pictures of Rohith, was flagged-off from the university campus.

On a week-long journey, the students will travel across 10 districts of Telangana demanding justice for Rohith. They will also visit various educational institutions to sensitize youngsters about widespread prevalence of caste-based discrimination in our society and how it is destroying our democratic fabric.

A similar bus yatra to tour across 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh was flagged-off from the university campus on Friday (February 12).

Both the bus yatras have been organized by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice, University of Hyderabad (UoH). The members of the JAC have been at the forefront demanding justice for Rohith. The 26-year-old Dalit research scholar was found hanged in the university campus on January 17.

The bus yatras are part of students' mobilisation movement ahead of ‘Chalo Delhi' called by the JAC. As per JAC's plan, students from various parts of the country will come together to express their solidarity with the Justice for Rohith Vemula movement in New Delhi on February 23.

The campus of UoH is on the boil since the suicide of Rohith. In last one month, the campus has witnessed several protests. Several scholars, filmmakers, folk artists, writers and poets have expressed their solidarity with the students' movement by joining the protests on the campus.

The students are demanding the resignations of Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya from the Union cabinet. They also want the sacking of Prof P Appa Rao from the UoH vice-chancellor's post.

Rohith was one of the five scholars who were expelled, after a scuffle broke out between the Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) (Rohith was a member of ASA) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in August last year.

Although the classes have resumed in the campus few days ago, the students continued their relay hunger strike. According to the members of JAC, the relay hunger strike will continue till all their demands are addressed.

OneIndia News